Today's Story Line:

By
Clayton Jones, World Editor of The Christian Science Monitor /
April 1, 1999

BOSTON

When NATO attacked Serbia on March 24, did it expect public opinion in the West to influence its strategy? Nine days into the war, public outrage over Serb atrocities against ethnic Albanians has pushed some officials to advocate some use of ground forces despite all the obstacles in logistics, and political will. Quote of note: "Collectively, NATO doesn't have the stomach for a gruelling and expensive ground fight for a confused purpose." - Ted Foster, Royal United Services Institute in London. Air-war experts says warplanes cannot control the situation on the ground, militarily or politically. In Belgrade, Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic is wiping up the anti-American propaganda, which has become even more crucial for his survival as the war drags on. Quote of note: "It's appalling. People are starting to think they are mighty and, in some [cases], correct." - a critic of Mr. Milosevic.

While war wages elsewhere, women in Mexico are hoping new work-hour rules that begin today will help them cope with long days.

REPORTERS ON THE JOB *A GAS STATION NAMED DAYTON: As correspondent Justin Brown hunkers down in Belgrade, he says gasoline is the hardest thing to get. The government says that journalists are supposed to have special gas privileges, but the paperwork hasn't gone through yet. In the meantime, the car he's getting around in ("the smallest car in the world," Justin says) is just about on empty - although he has about a few gallons left in his own car across town. Justin notes that he often passes a huge state-owned gas station - bigger than any American gas station, he says - which is chained off. The station is known as Dayton, after the peace agreement, when sanctions were lifted and gas became legally available in Yugoslavia.

PRESS CLIPPINGS *'MELISSA' GOES TO WAR? NATO said yesterday that computer hackers from inside Yugoslavia are inundating its Web site with viruses and firing off thousands of e-mails each day, overloading the site. "We have been dealing with some hackers in Belgrade who have hacked into our Web site and caused line saturation of the server," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said, adding that NATO's e-mail system has also been "saturated" by an unknown individual who's been sending some 2,000 e-mails a day. He said "macro viruses" have also been sent in from Yugoslavia. But airstrike planners, the organization says, have nothing to worry about. NATO officials maintain the disruption was limited to the Web site and e-mail system - and was not affecting military computers.